Promotion of a Regional Innovation System: The Case of the State of Mexico

The state of Mexico is one of the most important Mexican states in terms of population and contribution to GDP. Nevertheless its competitiveness is ranked very low according to different benchmarking studies of the Mexican states. One priority strategic issue to overcome such a lack of competitiveness is to foster innovation through the increase of private sector investments in R&D and the improvement of the links among firms, research organizations, universities and government. In this framework, the Mexico-State Council of Science and Technology (COMECYT) has launched an initiative to strengthen the local innovation system, in alliance with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT). The starting point of this initiative is the definition of the state's innovation agenda departing from a comprehensive diagnosis of current capabilities, resources for innovation and policy instruments, and a priority-setting process with participation of representatives of the triple helix model: firms, research institutions and local government. Once this agenda is available, sectorial networks are being built to facilitate interaction and collaboration for innovation. Matching funds for cooperative innovation projects are being offered to SMEs as an economic incentive to promote private investment and institutional links. Capacity-building has been identified as a critical factor for success of this initiative and for that reason high-level training on innovation policies and management is being implemented for staff of firms, universities, R&D centers and government institutions. This paper deals with the analysis of this experience, identifying factors of success, problems for the definition of the agenda and the main obstacles for the implementation of the different policy measures of this initiative.